mainichi ni Koenji e ikimasu

The Ebisu Dagashi Bar. After work. A circle of salarymen sit at a table, chugging back beers, nursing shots of whiskey. So far, so normal. Then several of the suits get up and grab little wicker baskets. They make for the end of the bar where storage bins and glass jars containing brightly colored items are kept. Hands reach out and come back with candy, junk food, dagashi. Pop Rocks, powdered soda, candy cigarettes, dried-squid-on-a-stick, and even little breasts made out of white chocolate.

The place is fairly new, but designed to look like a rickety post-war tin shack. Old ads for Bireley’s orange soda and Jubei Nimpocho movies hang on the walls. Pink Lady and Kenji Sawada songs play from hidden speakers. A kid would go wild in here because of the candy, the Dagashi Bar was made for discriminating adults, looking for some sweet tasting nostalgia.

The menu is the usual pub fare: curry rice, yakisoba, and salads. But you can kick things up a notch by paying extra for the “Dagashi System,” which means all you can eat candy and snacks. And if your stomach goes nutzoid from all the booze, junk food, and curry, you can go for some Roman Orgy style relief in the bathroom, where the ghost of Yujiro Ishihara watches your every move.

Here's looking at you...but you 'aint no kid.
So why the fuck you eat all that candy?

Comments

[Carl Horn]

The last two posts put me in mind of an observation about the Geto Boys. It's clear that they think most aren't mentally up to their music; Bushwick Bill dismisses the notion of parental oversight with Nietzchean contempt ("Your mother can't relate because her mind is weak."). But they believe there is a physical challenge most will fail as well, being particularly fond of insisting that their work will provoke scenes of gero and suka. You are warned, for example, that this is "some shit'll make you throw up," that "what's about to happen you might not be able to stomach," sneered at when "like a hoe you start to vomit," even informed of upcoming events that "will make you shit your meal." I don't doubt Radiohead has similar feelings about their audience, but what sets the Geto Boys apart is that they're willing to say so.

[OrangeCaliforniaCooler]

The only thing missing from this bar is Fuji Bandito screaming, "You very brave for man out numbered two to one!"

[Patrick3]

Or Inspector Fuji Chan.
"Bad alibi like smell of old lunch...cannot stand the taste of time!